Family Research CouncilIf there's one thing this debate didn't lack, it was teeth. Vice President Joe Biden showed his so often that some people joked his dentist was the night's real winner. For 90 straight minutes, the former senator was a one-man laugh track--chuckling his way through the debate's most sobering topics. To most Americans, the prospect of nuclear war isn't exactly side-splitting. Yet Biden snickered his way through foreign policy questions as if Libyan terrorists were the punch line to a hilarious joke. As far as most viewers (including the liberal media) were concerned, Biden's constant amusement was off-putting, if not completely obnoxious. Less than an hour after the debate ended, the Republican National Committee had already posted a new ad, juxtaposing Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wisc.) cool and measured approach to the joker sitting next to him. "Vice President Biden is laughing," the text says, "Are you?"
When the Vice President wasn't grinning, he was interrupting--as many as 82 times. During the abortion discussion, one of the few moments when Biden was serious, his answers were so absurd that we could have laughed. In response to Paul Ryan, who said the contraception-abortion mandate is "an assault on religious liberty," the Vice President responded with one of the biggest whoppers of the night: "No religious institution, Catholic or otherwise... has to either refer [for] contraception. None has to pay for contraception. None has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact." If they agree with you, Ryan fired back, "why would they keep suing you?"
Both men insisted their Catholic faith defines who they are--but in Biden's case, it does not define how he leads. "My religion defines who I am. And I've been a practicing Catholic my whole life. And it has particularly informed my social doctrine. Catholic social doctrine talks about taking care of those who--who can't take care of themselves... With regard to abortion," he said, "I accept my Church's position on abortion... But I do not believe that we have a right to tell other people, women, that they cannot control their body." Apparently, in the Vice President's version of Catholicism, you can pick and choose which teachings to follow. (CNSNews's Terry Jeffrey debunks his a la carte approach in a new column.) Biden says his faith informs him on the more convenient big government issues--like social justice--but not others, like the sanctity of life. He rationalizes that he can be pro-choice, because he helps the poor. Yet who is more poor and vulnerable than a child in the womb? Congressman Ryan told viewers, he didn't see "how a person can separate their private life from their public life or their faith." On matters of life, he said, yes, his Church influences him, "but it's also because of reason and science."
Even if voters disagree on abortion, Americans should recognize that there's only one extremist in this race--and that's our current President. The same man, who, on four separate occasions, voted to kill living, breathing newborns simply for surviving an abortion. "What reasonable, clear-thinking person could be for letting live infants die in trash bins?" writes HotAir's Libby Sternberg. Even the most radical, pro-abortion members of the U.S. Senate at the time--Barbara Boxer, Hillary Clinton, and Ted Kennedy--refused to share in his heartlessness. "The Democratic party use to say [abortion] should be safe, legal, and rare," Ryan said. "Now they support it without restriction and with taxpayer funding. Taxpayer-funding in ObamaCare, taxpayer-funding with foreign aid." In reality, there's not a single abortion restriction that President Obama does oppose. A campaign official admitted as much yesterday in a testy interview with The Weekly Standard.
Speaking of taxpayer-funded abortion, the biggest beneficiary--Planned Parenthood--made a surprise appearance in last night's debate when the Vice President let the name slip in an exchange over the Supreme Court. "Do you think [Governor Romney] is likely to appoint someone like Scalia or someone else on the court, far right, that would outlaw Planned--excuse me--outlaw abortion?" It was just a blip in the debate, but it confirms what FRC has said for years: Planned Parenthood is synonymous with abortion. If Americans recognize this and still sign up for another four years of conscience-crushing, abortion-expanding, morally bankrupt policy, then Joe Biden should be laughing. Because the joke's on us.
For more on the two Vice Presidential candidates and how their positions stack up, check out FRC Action's Catholic Voter Guide, available here.
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